Friday, July 06, 2007

How can we live in a country where the care you receive is at the whim of pencil pushers at insurance companies whose bonuses are tied to the number of claims they deny?

Pencil pushers huh?

Any idea what the folks in Congress do when it comes to deciding who gets Medicare, what is covered and what isn't, how much the Medicare beneficiaries will pay for their care, and how much the medical providers will be paid for their services?

More than that, though, is the fallacy that government health care won't work.

Are you saying government health care (your words, not mine) does work?

If we take the profit out of the system, the only thing it will focus on is treating people.

So profits are getting in the way of health care.

Or is it health insurance?

Profit margins for health insurance are around 4% and sometimes less. Take out the profit margin & what do you have?

And this is another view, including a link that allows you to watch Sicko online.

Why do we, as Americans, allow anyone to make a profit off of health insurance?

There's that word again.

PROFIT.

Does anyone really understand basic economics and accounting? Apparently not. For some reason PROFIT is equated with BAD.

Gas prices will come down if the refiners and distributors PROFITS are taxed.

Housing prices will come down if the contractors PROFITS are regulated.

Health insurance prices will come down if their PROFITS are eliminated.

All of these statements are true. The only question is, how MUCH will prices drop?

The amount is hardly noticeable.

For what it's worth, I plan on watching Sicko this weekend. More on that later.

And this just in . . .

For those of you playing along at home, here are the profit margins of 3 top carriers in the health insurance industry.

Wellpoint 5.4%http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WLP

Aetna 6.77%http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=AET

UHC 5.75%http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=UNH

If each of these carriers were to operate on ZERO profit margin you could expect premiums to drop approximately 6%.

How can we live in a country where the care you receive is at the whim of pencil pushers at insurance companies whose bonuses are tied to the number of claims they deny?

Pencil pushers huh?

Any idea what the folks in Congress do when it comes to deciding who gets Medicare, what is covered and what isn't, how much the Medicare beneficiaries will pay for their care, and how much the medical providers will be paid for their services?

More than that, though, is the fallacy that government health care won't work.

Are you saying government health care (your words, not mine) does work?

If we take the profit out of the system, the only thing it will focus on is treating people.

So profits are getting in the way of health care.

Or is it health insurance?

Profit margins for health insurance are around 4% and sometimes less. Take out the profit margin & what do you have?

And this is another view, including a link that allows you to watch Sicko online.

Why do we, as Americans, allow anyone to make a profit off of health insurance?

There's that word again.

PROFIT.

Does anyone really understand basic economics and accounting? Apparently not. For some reason PROFIT is equated with BAD.

Gas prices will come down if the refiners and distributors PROFITS are taxed.

Housing prices will come down if the contractors PROFITS are regulated.

Health insurance prices will come down if their PROFITS are eliminated.

All of these statements are true. The only question is, how MUCH will prices drop?

The amount is hardly noticeable.

For what it's worth, I plan on watching Sicko this weekend. More on that later.

And this just in . . .

For those of you playing along at home, here are the profit margins of 3 top carriers in the health insurance industry.

Wellpoint 5.4%http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=WLP

Aetna 6.77%http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=AET

UHC 5.75%http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ks?s=UNH

If each of these carriers were to operate on ZERO profit margin you could expect premiums to drop approximately 6%.